Following JFK’s assassination, Connally handily won two more terms as governor of Texas. He then joined the Nixon administration, switching his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican three months after LBJ’s death. In the midst of the Watergate scandal, Connally faced charges that he took a bribe in exchange for helping to win milk price support increases. A jury found him not guilty. He ran for president in 1980, but never gained much traction against Ronald Reagan in the Republican primaries. Connally died in June 1993 due to complications from pulmonary fibrosis.
J.D. Tippit: The Policeman
A paratrooper during World War II, J.D. Tippit found work for the Dearborn Stove Co. and Sears Roebuck & Co. in Dallas following his return to civilian life. Tippit, who was born and raised in rural East Texas, also briefly tried his hand at farming. In 1952 he joined the Dallas Police Department, where he remained for the next 11 years.
For Tippit, November 22, 1963, started off innocuously, with a trip to his sister’s house and coffee with a fellow officer. In a break from his normal routine, he ate lunch—fried potatoes and a tuna sandwich—at home with his wife. He then went back on duty, and, following JFK’s assassination, was sent to patrol the Oak Cliff neighborhood. A witness had told police he saw a thin man in his 30s, around 5 feet, 10 inches tall, fire a rifle at Kennedy from the sixth-floor corner window of the Texas School Book Depository Building. At around 1:15 p.m., Tippit spotted Oswald, who resembled that description. According to the Warren Commission, the two exchanged words through the passenger window of Tippit’s car. Tippit then got out of the car, only to have Oswald whip out a revolver and shoot him multiple times, killing him instantly.
“I just couldn’t picture how we were going to live without him,” Tippit’s 85-year-old widow told the Associated Press. “I had three children that needed their dad, but he wasn’t there anymore.” In the wake of the officer’s murder, donations for his family poured in from around the country. In all, more than $4 million (in today’s money) was raised, including a check from Abraham Zapruder, who shot the famous footage of President Kennedy’s assassination and donated a portion of the proceeds he made when he sold the film to Life magazine.
James Tague: The Car Salesman
Dallas car salesman James Tague, then 27, was late to a lunch date with his future wife on November 22, 1963, when he ran into a traffic jam outside Dealey Plaza. Tague, who was only vaguely aware of the president’s visit, got out of his vehicle to find out what was going on. Just then, he heard a loud bang and felt something slam into his right cheek. A bullet had apparently hit the curb next to him and sent debris flying into his face.
Tague’s cheek wound was minor, but demonstrated that at least one of the shots meant for Kennedy must have missed its target. As Tague ducked behind a concrete abutment, he saw the presidential limo racing toward the hospital, and only realized he had been wounded after he was approached by a Dallas police officer on the scene.
When Tague testified before the Warren Commission the following year, he acknowledged that all of the shots could have come from the Texas School Book Depository Building. And he reportedly believed that Oswald likely acted alone. Later on, however, Tague changed his tune: he authored two books on the assassination, one of which alleges that LBJ and his associates planned the killing with the help of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.